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DEAD-SEASON SERIES: 5 Twitter accounts to satisfy your conference expansion rumor appetite

It's that magical time of year between the end of basketball season and the beginning of football season that we here at VTF are affectionately calling the Dead Season. Instead of adding more to the insane amount of words already on the Internet about deflated footballs, we are here to break down the most unimportant topics.

By Brett Hein
If the guys on this list were on Twitter in 2007, they most assuredly would have had #sources to tell you how President Bush would have helped MLS Houston Dynamo president Oliver Luck get West Virginia into the Big 12.
If the guys on this list were on Twitter in 2007, they most assuredly would have had #sources to tell you how President Bush would have helped MLS Houston Dynamo president Oliver Luck get West Virginia into the Big 12.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

Several years ago, when college conference expansion/realignment was in full swing, there grew to be a proliferation of mysterious Twitter accounts which claimed to have knowledge and #sources about impending (dare I say, imminent) changes and contracts to shift the college sports landscape.

While we are a bit removed from those times of yore, there are still a handful of Twitter users willing to feed your appetite and provide the best in conference realignment sourcing and rumors.

@theDudeofWV

The Dude has been at it with the best of them for years, but as recently as within the last week he's been dropping hints and sourced information for the masses:

He tweets about BYU sometimes:

...even if while using narratives that aren't true...

Simply put, you'll never go long without some kind of tease regarding the Big 12 and usually its expansion or lack thereof.

@TuxedoYoda

While relatively quiet on the realignment/expansion front recently, Yoda is still in the realignment game while passing along some crazy tidbit from a West Virginia fan (that's where all the real fun realignment talk happens, on West Virginia message boards).

But there are usually takes (and inside info!) about expansion:

And whatever this is supposed to mean:

@PromiscuousJawa

This guy, though bizarre that it is another "(ironic/unrelated word)(Star Wars character)" name, is probably the most currently active tweeter on expansion/realignment, and even does so with specifics. He did shoot this vague tweet earlier this month, which he replied in the ensuing thread was about BYU:

Here's a sample, all from no further ago than March. His most prominent source/prediction is that Cincinnati is destined for the ACC soon.

@flugempire

A newer addition to the core group of Twitterers with expansion/realignment/contract knowledge is this apparent Minnesota fan.

He has BYU info too:

But wait! There's more! Inter-expansion-account strife!

Subtweeting The Dude about Grant Of Rights language in the Big 12 media contracts:

That's fun.

@GSwaim

The grandfather of all #hot #expansion #sources #and #hashtags has been at it for quite some time. The man who may have bit really hard on an obvious piece of satire about expansion (and like half of the Internet, can't spell the word definitely)

...spent considerable time not only tweeting about Big 12 rumors but also writing about it. Curiously, though, I have a really hard time finding any of his blog posts that still exist on the matter.

For example, the link on this tweet is dead:

As is the page for the story linked on this message board, which cites one of Swaim's biggest rumors, that Florida State and Clemson were long-time frontrunners for Big 12 invites.

He often had quite detailed pieces of information, like knowing what teams were on the Big 12's list in the case of expansion to 16 teams.

His vast extent of #sources and willingness to put forth any and every rumor...

...even spawned a fake parody Twitter account:

As far as I can tell, he seems to have slowed down on realignment talk ... because everyone has slowed down realignment talk. But if anything remotely significant hits the Internet in the expansion discussion, I'm betting we'd see a rebirth of Swaim the Swami.

Catch up on the rest of the Dead-Season Series.

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